As a people, we take fried foods seriously. That's why bartender Brian Felley was determined to create a Hanukkah cocktail that would do justice to the Festival of Lights, which begins at sundown Saturday.

Like any good San Francisco mixologist worth his weight in house-made celery root syrup, Felley, a managing partner at Big, a newish bar between Union Square and the Tenderloin, started with fresh ingredients.

First, he considered a latke-inspired cocktail with a potato vodka base. Meh. Next, he set to work on a matzo ball martini. (Thankfully, that didn't work out. The image of matzo meal floating in a martini glass makes me gag.)

Felley finally found his cocktail when he expanded his search to include not only his Ashkenazi roots -- he grew up celebrating Hanukkah on Long Island with his Russian Jewish mother -- but the Sephardic flavors of Middle Eastern Jewish cuisine and Latin American flavors of the Jewish cuisine from that part of the world.

"I was suddenly drawn to cumin and caraway," he explains. "I wanted something savory with those warming flavors."

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The result? The Hebrew International, an herby concoction made with bourbon, kosher plum brandy and kümmel, a cumin and caraway liqueur. It'll be offered all month at Big for $13.

Others embrace more traditional pairings. Napa's Jeff Morgan, the Grand Jew-Bah of kosher wine, and his family plan to sip his lush, barrel-fermented 2011 Covenant Chardonnay "Lavan" Russian River Valley ($38) with their latkes, which he makes crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

"We top them with a cool crème fraîche, so any richly textured white wine such as chardonnay or viognier would make an excellent pairing selection," he says.

If you like topping your latkes with applesauce, you'll need something sweeter, like riesling, otherwise the applesauce will make a dry white wine taste bitter, says Morgan, who is also a wine writer and teaches wine education at the Culinary Institute of America. He suggests the 2011 Wente Vineyards Riverbank Riesling. "Not too sweet, but not dry," he says. "It's just right for that applesauce."

If you like topping your latkes with applesauce, you'll need something sweeter, like riesling, otherwise the applesauce will make a dry white wine taste bitter. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo Archives)

If you want to taste multiple wines, you should spend Hanukkah with Lodi winegrower Ben Kolber and his wife, Madelyn Ripken, who grew up in a third-generation wine-growing family.

Every year, they host four generations for a feast featuring the fruit of the vines that Kolber harvests, including the zinfandel that goes into Michael David Winery's popular Seven Deadly Zins, as well as the oil from the olives on a nearby ranch.

They fry their latkes in that oil and pair them with applesauce and the 2011 Hagafen Roussanne Ripken Vineyard Lodi ($18), a fruity, complex white wine made with grapes sourced by the family.

"Not only did I work on that project, but we think it's pretty cool that the wine was served by President Obama to Israel's Shimon Peres last year," Kolber says.

For the star of the main meal, brisket, Kolber pours big, meaty Lodi wines such as the peppery 2010 Klinker Brick Old Vine Zinfandel ($19) and the 2010 Michael David Petite Petit ($18), a jammy blend of petite sirah and petit verdot.

They end that celebratory first night of Hanukkah with the 2006 Ripken Vineyards & Winery Late Harvest Viognier ($20), a honey-hued dessert wine brimming with creme brulee and ripe apricot flavors. It's liquid gelt.